Fennel and Rue eBook

I.

The success of Verrian did not come early, and it
did not come easily. He had been trying a long
time to get his work into the best magazines, and
when he had won the favor of the editors, whose interest
he had perhaps had from the beginning, it might be
said that they began to accept his work from their
consciences, because in its way it was so good that
they could not justly refuse it. The particular
editor who took Verrian’s serial, after it had
come back to the author from the editors of the other
leading periodicals, was in fact moved mainly by the
belief that the story would please the better sort
of his readers. These, if they were not so numerous
as the worse, he felt had now and then the right to
have their pleasure studied.

It was a serious story, and it was somewhat bitter,
as Verrian himself was, after his struggle to reach
the public with work which he knew merited recognition.
But the world which does not like people to take themselves
too seriously also likes them to take themselves seriously,
and the bitterness in Verrian’s story proved
agreeable to a number of readers unexpectedly great.
It intimated a romantic personality in the author,
and the world still likes to imagine romantic things
of authors. It likes especially to imagine them
of novelists, now that there are no longer poets;
and when it began to like Verrian’s serial, it
began to write him all sorts of letters, directly,
in care of the editor, and indirectly to the editor,
whom they asked about Verrian more than about his
story.

It was a man’s story rather than a woman’s
story, as these may be distinguished; but quite for
that reason women seemed peculiarly taken with it.
Perhaps the women had more leisure or more courage
to write to the author and the editor; at any rate,
most of the letters were from women; some of the letters
were silly and fatuous enough, but others were of
an intelligence which was none the less penetrating
for being emotional rather than critical. These
maids or matrons, whoever or whichever they were,
knew wonderfully well what the author would be at,
and their interest in his story implied a constant
if not a single devotion. Now and then Verrian
was tempted to answer one of them, and under favor
of his mother, who had been his confidant at every
point of his literary career, he yielded to the temptation;
but one day there came a letter asking an answer,
which neither he nor his mother felt competent to
deal with. They both perceived that they must
refer it to the editor of the magazine, and it seemed
to them so important that they decided Verrian must
go with it in person to the editor. Then he must
be so far ruled by him, if necessary, as to give him
the letter and put himself, as the author, beyond
an appeal which he found peculiarly poignant.